This invention relates to an electric shaver and an apparatus cooperating therewith according to the prior art portion of claim 1 and to an arrangement in accordance with claim 13.
Electric shavers in which, for example, the need to clean the shaver is indicated by a time-controlled visual output of information, are known in the art. This visual information output can be used furthermore to indicate the level of charge of a storage battery and to provide additional information such as the need to change the shaving head and/or shaving foil.
From German patent application DE 19606719 which is not prior published, a cleaning device for a shaving apparatus is known. Such a cleaning device is an example for an apparatus which cooperates with a shaver. In the following description talk will be only of a shaver. This shall be understood, however, to also include a corresponding apparatus cooperating with the shaver.
For an apparatus cooperating with the shaver to function properly and also for customer service purposes, information about the shaver's use history is helpful. Because this information is irrelevant to the user of the shaver, it is not indicated normally. However, to be able to use such information when it is needed, a shaver is provided according to claim 1 of the present invention in which this information can be output without the need to increase the size of the output unit. Hence an advantage is achieved in the design of the shaver because there is no need to provide an output unit of a size sufficient to enable all the indicatable items of information to be shown side by side. This makes sense particularly where the information in question is practically never needed by the user himself but only by the shaver manufacturer's customer service department. Considering that customer service personnel are accordingly trained employees, the effort involved in outputting the information from the shaver may be greater than the effort that would normally be expected from a user of the shaver.
In the shaver according to claim 2 it proves to be an advantage to be able to drive the microcontroller in a clearly defined manner by signal input via a PIN of the microcontroller. This may well require the shaver to be opened to have access to the microprocessor, but it does prevent the shaver being switched inadvertently by the user to the separate output mode, resulting in the user being unable to comprehend the ensuing indication and concluding that the apparatus is defective.
In the shaver according to claim 3 it proves to be an advantage that the separate output mode can be activated without the need to open the case of the shaver. Normally modern shavers are designed to operate on various supply voltages. For this purpose the shavers are equipped with voltage transformers, usually flyback converters, which are adapted to receive on their primary side a variety of voltages. Conventionally, shavers are operated on 12 V or 24 V DC supplies or on 110 V or 220 V AC supplies. In the application assigned Serial No. DE 38 03 906 A1 a method is described, for example, enabling detection of the supply voltage applied to the shaver. With the shaver according to claim 3, for example, it is possible to apply a DC voltage of 12 V, for example, to the shaver for an initial period of several seconds. During a second period, which again may last several seconds, it is then possible to apply an AC voltage of 220 V to the shaver. If the voltages to be applied to the shaver have to be set manually by the user, it is suitable to select longer rather than shorter periods and to assign wider tolerances. It is also possible, however, to provide a power supply unit generating voltages of the appropriate magnitudes at its output. This power supply unit can be constructed in such a way that the voltage at the power supply output changes in a time-related sequence, the various voltages being generated in the specific time-related sequence in accordance with claim 3. The power supply unit is then adapted, therefore, for activating the separate output mode.
The shaver according to claim 4 is advantageous in that the separate output mode can be activated without opening the shaver. Activation is possible in particularly easy manner without any additional aids.
In the embodiment of the shaver according to claim 5 it is possible to set the specific operating modes by actuating the shaver's on/off switch in a predetermined sequence and/or switching the shaver's long hair trimmer on and off in a predetermined sequence.
Activation of the output mode can also be accomplished, for example, by resorting optionally to one of the described methods of activation, with the output mode being activatable by various methods. It is also possible to construct a shaver so that the output mode can be activated only when several of the described methods of activation are performed in combination.
An advantage of the shaver according to claim 6 is the ability to indicate a comparatively large number of information items, enabling the user of the shaver to select which of the indicatable items of information is to be indicated. With an output unit of limited size it shows again that the required items of information can nevertheless be indicated in a user perceptible and selective manner.
With the shaver according to claim 7 it is possible to select the setting mode, for example, by actuating the on/off switch and/or the switch for actuating a shaver's long hair trimmer, for example, in a predetermined sequence.
The separate output mode enables the items of information stored in the microcontroller to be read out directly from the microcontroller by the connection of an electric lead to a corresponding PIN of the microcontroller, the information being read out via this electric lead, using, for example, another computer. The information can then be further processed and, where applicable, indicated by this computer. A shaver equipped with a microcontroller conventionally has an output unit such as a display, one or several LEDs and/or an aural signal output device. This output unit is used during normal operation to indicate at least one of the shaver's operating modes, for example, the level of charge of a storage battery incorporated in the shaver.
According to claim 8 this output unit can be used advantageously in the separate output mode to output the information items.
According to claim 9 the information can be output by visual and/or aural means.
In the shaver according to claim 10 it proves to be an advantage for the signal delivered by the output unit to be read by means of a detector which can be connected in turn to a computer port. A comparatively simple configuration results when the detector is connected to a PC port. This port can be the serial as well as the parallel port of the PC. The detector can be constructed for the resolution of visual signals as well as for the resolution of audible signals. For the resolution of visual signals it is possible for either the display or at least one of the LEDs to be driven with a coded signal from the shaver. The coding can be transmitted in RC5 code, for example. Driving an LED has advantages over driving a display because of the LED's faster response. It is also possible, however, to drive an aural output device. The information can then be transmitted by suitable definition of the pulse-duration-modulated signal.
In a shaver according to claim 11, the information is output preferably via a display. To indicate the level of charge of the shaver's storage battery, a zone is provided, for example, for displaying digits during normal operation of the shaver as an indication of the time left for the shaver to run until the storage battery is fully depleted. It is possible furthermore for the display to have several zone segments which when driven in normal operation enable the percentage capacity of the storage battery to be indicated in 20% increments, for example. The digits can be used in the separate output mode--by means of a predetermined number, for example--to indicate the type of information to be output. If this information has to be represented by a multi-digit number whose number of digits exceeds the number of digits that can be indicated at a time, it is possible by driving specific segments, for example, to show at which position in the number the currently indicated digit occurs. A two-digit number, for example, can be indicated by alternate driving of the digits such as one digit indicated in continuous mode and another digit indicated in flashing mode, provided it is specified that the digit indicated in continuous mode is the first digit of the number and the flashing digit the second digit of the number.
With a presentation possibility in which individual segments can be selected, provision can be made advantageously in accordance with claim 12 for the driving of a specified segment to signal that the shaver is in the separate output mode.
With an arrangement according to claim 13 it is possible advantageously for a signal output in accordance with claim 10, for example, to be received for further processing.